Shirley Ballas testosterone health scare

[ListeningToSnow]

Wondered if anyone has seen this in the news. From the Times:

"Shirley Ballas, the Strictly Come Dancing judge, has revealed that she is being sent for scans on all of her organs after she was found to be suffering from abnormally high testosterone levels.

In an interview with The Sun on Sunday, Ballas, 61, said she was told by a doctor that the level of testosterone in her body was “the highest she’s seen in a female”.

"She said I have the highest testosterone levels she’s ever seen in a woman, and testosterone can wreak havoc on the female organs.

“So she’s requested an urgent scan of all of my organs at King’s College, London."

Some commenters below the line have drawn the obvious parallel re: testosterone in female bodies.

Some women take testosterone as part of HRT. I wonder if that's how she ended up with high levels of T.

IIRC high level of testosterone in a female can indicate ovarian cancer.

Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't mean to be nosy about Shirley's particular health situation, it just struck me how clear her doctor was that testosterone can "wreak havoc" on female organs, and yet in the context of teenagers being prescribed it this inconvenient fact gets handwaved away.

I had a look: PCOS, adrenal disease and diabetes seem to be the major causes of elevated testosterone in females but there are others, as you'd expect, ovarian tumours amongst them.

This doesn’t feel in particularly good taste. She could be seriously ill.

Yes she could but she didn't have to reveal this information to the works either ! I hope she is ok

Well, I obviously wish her the very best, and I should have been clearer that I am not looking to speculate about her health. She's chosen to speak out about this, to spread awareness. I think the testosterone angle is important. Obviously in Shirley's case the cause could be anything, and I'm not here to ask what. However, there are young women signing up for this, and as a society we seem to have willfully forgotten the dangers, e.g. long term effects on Soviet athletes. If someone can read about Shirley and something clicks in their brain about testosterone on female organs, that's all to the good.
Just me?

It's not unusual for athletic women to naturally have high testosterone. I'm not sure what Shirley Ballas has to do with sex and gender?

Not just you OP. Your post doesn’t read as prurient, you’ve just quoted what Shirley herself has shared with the world. If it helps makes some young gender-confused girl hesitate before signing up to a life of organ damage, then it’s timely and important publicity about the harmful effects of unusually or artificially high levels of testosterone on the female body.

I don't think we have forgotten the dangers of filling young women with testosterone, OP, I think they're being ignored for political reasons.

There's quite a list of conditions caused by high levels of this hormone in females. Does it make a difference if it's endogenous or exogenous? I don't know. Maybe we'll get more data at some stage.

Shirley B could have kept her own counsel on this but she chose not to so people will talk about it.

CorrBlimeyGG

"It's not unusual for athletic women to naturally have high testosterone."

That is simply not true. The athletes who have testosterone in the male range, are the ones with 46 XY DSD.

"Within the same press release, the IAAF cited research that states “most females (including elite female athletes) have low levels of testosterone circulating naturally in their bodies (0.12 to 1.79 nmol/L in blood), while after puberty the normal male range is much higher (7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L).”

globalsportmatters.com/health/2019/11/15/iaaf-regulations-for-female-athletes-with-high-testosterone/

One reason Shirley has been so open about it is that she only went to see her Dr because viewers noticed a lump under her arm one SCD night and wrote in to the BBC to let her know. I think that was lovely.

It is worrying how much of an impact testosterone has on the female body, and yes, it would be good if this openness from SB about her health helps girls think again about cross-sex hormones.

Thank you @OnlyTheTitosaurusOfTheIceberg. That's exactly what I was trying to get across. And @Rightsraptor you're right, the dangers are no secret but nobody wants to say so. Although I'm not sure that younger people are even aware. And a lot of people are probably lulled into thinking that the doctors prescribing these drugs to girls must know what they are doing.

I'm loving the dino usernames by the way

I agree, @GrouchyKiwi, I think the more we air issues on both physical & mental health the better really. Maybe then we'll stop thinking we're the only one to have this thing or to feel that way. Obviously I hope Shirley's problem turns out to be minor. Perhaps she's unknowingly persuaded others to check out whatever their own weird symptom might be.

I did think of becoming Ankylosaurus,@ListeningToSnow, as I feel so stiff in the joints these days but the dig at David Lammy won the contest.

On one of the recent The Mess We're In podcasts they mentioned links between taking testosterone, early menopause and dementia. Does anyone have more information on that, because it was a shocker to me and I'm horrified that some little girl who likes playing with cars or some teenage girl reacting to sexism could end up on a pathway to early dementia? They also mentioned that the testosterone-doped swimmers Sharron Davies competed against have all died relatively young. I haven't fact-checked that but, if true, it's scary that children are not being provided with this information.

I think it’s part of the narrative of how desperately trans people need medical treatment to be their “true selves” (except when they don’t, of course) and pushing the idea that they’ll be suicidal without it, that even appalling side effects are seen as necessary, or even adding to the victimhood in a way. They “need” this treatment and the fact it destroys their health is just yet more evidence of their suffering, instead of being a possible argument against doing it.

I’ve seen transactivists on Twitter compare it to chemo - I.e. when kids have cancer we give them chemo and that has side-effects, but the chemo is life-saving so it’s worth it. Not quite the same IMO as 90% of cancer cases aren’t going to spontaneously resolve over time

I really hope Shirley Ballas is ok.

The obvious parallel is with the hysterectomies performed on young transmen in their late teens or twenties. Perhaps they're downplaying it for the camera but the negative impacts seem to be very much minimised, unlike when an older woman has one for health reasons, or when a younger woman is not 'permitted' to have one .